This is a blog about my forthcoming teaching book due for publication in September 2015. You can pre-order here.

Context:

I count myself very lucky indeed to be able to share this blogpost. To be able to be in a position to share my teaching ideas with my peers. One thing I can promise my readers before sharing the details, are three points; 1) This book contains no silver bullet. 2) There is no promise of ‘Outstanding’ teaching, only consistently good, and 3) The word ‘Ofsted’ is not mentioned once!

About the book. The content is complete. The editing now begins. I have employed a freelance Illustrator (and ex-student @pollynor) to re-create school scenarios and bring them to life. Take a look at some of her work. Be prepared!

The book cover will be tweaked slightly and has gone through a rigorous analysis. The holding page to pre-order the book is also incomplete. This blog provides the biography that will appear on this page. Regardless of this, this book is all mine, and the beginning of the Te@cher Toolkit series.

Introducing:

This following information has been written by my Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd and not myself; hence the information is presented in the 3rd person.

@TeacherToolkit (a.k.a Ross Morrison McGill) believes that becoming a teacher is one of the best decisions you will ever make, but after 20 years of teaching, he knows that it is not an easy journey. There will be ups and downs along the way; excessive workload, changing goalposts, the pressures of inspections, so many lessons to plan… all that and a personal life to live too! There will of course be many happy moments but you will need the right tools in your kit to survive and thrive!

Written in Ross’ empathetic and humorous style, providing countless anecdotes directly from the classroom floor, his new book TE@CHER TOOLKIT contains a range of strategies and ideas to encourage teachers to stay in the classroom and stick it out longer than the publicised attrition rate (40% of teachers quit within their first five years).

He believes certain qualities need to be developed as teachers progress through the formative years of their career:

Year 1: Be resilient (surviving your NQT year)

Year 2: Be intelligent (refining your teaching)

Year 3: Be innovative (take risks and have the freedom to do so)

Year 4: Be collaborative (share and work with others now that your classroom practice is secure)

Year 5: Be aspirational (moving towards middle leadership)

After his first best-selling book, 100 ideas for Secondary Teachers, Ross’ eagerly awaited brand new book will also uncover the secret of The Vitruvian Teacher… (more to be revealed soon). His bookTE@CHER TOOLKIT continues in this vein and will help you to succeed in making it through the first few years in the classroom, towards that first middle leadership role.

The hashtag for this book is #VitruvianTeaching.

You can pre-order here.

Cover:

As anyone who has followed him on Twitter knows, Ross is not afraid to share the highs and lows of his own failures and successes. He strives to collate all of the best teaching practices from his experience and others’, to save you time and to ensure you are the best teacher you can be, whatever the government or Ofsted are asking for this week.

To view the book cover in full detail, click here. You can also pre-order here.

End.

I plan to share the finer details of how the book concept has formed, as well as book reviews written by colleagues. You can view some of the documentation on my wall at home here in Radio Silence. I’ve also had my social media icons pimped up, as well as my header for all my own websites. Take a look below;

Header:

Social-media icons:

Pre-Order:

One personal piece of advice I would give to potential readers; if you are kind enough to purchase/pre-order a copy of my book, do so directly from the publishers directly at Bloomsbury. I can help with delivery and resolve any issues. If you purchase a copy of the book from Amazon, I cannot control any delivery issues and it will be out of my control. Something I have learnt from the first time around.

Related

@TeacherToolkit

In 2010, Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit from a simple Twitter account in which he rapidly became the 'most followed teacher on social media in the UK'. In 2015, he was nominated for '500 Most Influential People in Britain' in The Sunday Times as one of the most influential in the field of education - he remains the only classroom teacher to feature to this day ... Sharing online as @TeacherToolkit, he rebuilt this website (c2008) into what you are now reading, as one of the 'most influential blogs on education in the UK', winning the number one spot at the UK Blog Awards (2018). Today, he is currently a PGCE tutor and is researching 'social media and its influence on education policy' for his EdD at Cambridge University. In 1993, he started teaching and is an experienced school leader working in some of the toughest schools in London. He is also a former Teaching Awards winner for 'Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School, London' (2004) and has written several books on teaching (2013-2018). Read more...